So serenely is Andy Murray progressing through the start of the clay-court
season that he is in grave danger of turning up in Roland Garros with a
severe lack of match practice.

Easy passage: Andy Murray in action in BarcelonaPhoto: EPA

By Telegraph staff and agencies

4:30PM BST 26 Apr 2012

On Thursday the second seed swept aside Santiago Giraldo 6-1, 6-2 in 74 minutes to reach the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open, where he will face Canada’s Milos Raonic Friday.

A three-set defeat to Tomas Berdych in Monte Carlo last week notwithstanding, Murray has made light work of his opponents so far, and now stands two wins from what would be his first ATP final on clay. In his way stands the exciting 21-year-old Canadian, long tipped as a future grand slam winner, with a ferocious serve and a growing reputation on clay, having put out home favourite Nicolas Almagro in straight sets.

At least Raonic, the world No 25, should provide a sterner test than Giraldo. In truth, the world No 54 from Colombia was never sufficiently equipped to offer much of a challenge to Murray, in the first meeting between the pair. Murray broke in the second game and took advantage of a string of errors to claim the first set with two breaks of serve.

Having broken again in the first game of the second set, Murray’s concentration lapsed momentarily in game four, in which he surrendered a break to Giraldo with a weak forehand into the net. But Murray was able to break twice more, sealing the match with a mistake on the backhand side from Giraldo.

The headline figures were encouraging for Murray: nine aces, five break points converted out of nine. He hounded Giraldo’s second serve mercilessly, winning 80 per cent of those points. But there were warning signs amid the carnage. The break conceded in the second set was an indication that Murray is still prone to aberrant patches, while he won just 42 per cent of points on his own second serve.

“He had played a lot of clay tennis already so I was expecting some long rallies,” Murray said. “But I got ahead and put pressure on him from the start. He started going for more and making some errors.”

Murray has never played Raonic. The pair were scheduled to meet in Miami last month, before Raonic withdrew from their third-round match with an ankle injury. Injury and inconsistency have perennially been Raonic’s main weaknesses, but he is developing a certain robustness on the red clay of Barcelona. Still, Murray’s patience and willingness to dig in during baseline rallies should be sufficient for him to prevail.

“It’s going to be completely different,” Murray said. “He’s obviously got a huge serve and a very good game. He can dictate the match, so you need to make sure you play a solid match. There’s a chance that he’s going to give you the odd opportunity by making mistakes and you need to be ready to take that.”

Rafael Nadal also cruised into the quarter-finals, beating another Colombian, Robert Farah, in straight sets.